Consumers and businesses are increasingly demanding the ability to access computer network resources from alternate locations. Usage scenarios gaining in popularity include employee access to corporate networks, supplier access to customer networks, student access to school networks, and others. These networks are referred to in this document as “target” networks.
Traditionally, this access has been provided via dial-up telephone-based connections directly between the end user and the remote network. With the ubiquity of the Internet, and given the large number of advantages of using Internet-based connections, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have begun to be implemented to meet these needs. VPNs make use of encryption technologies to privately and securely transport sensitive data across the public Internet.
VPNs based on World Wide Web technologies are relatively new to the market, and are rather primitive in their capabilities. Common VPN implementations enable a remote user to access, via a Web browser, a very limited subset of resources on a target network. Usually included are access to intranet documents (internal websites), access to e-mail in a restricted form, and occasionally access to files stored on network file servers.
Existing VPN implementations are subject to severe limitations in their usability. In particular, they are all restricted in the types of functionality they can provide by the intrinsic capabilities of common Web browsers and by the facilities of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Only very basic file transferring, the display of websites, and the use of applications specifically designed to run within the constraints of Web technology can be achieved.
Accordingly, improved systems and methods for providing remote network access are desirable.